To live in a good feng shui house is to be surrounded by a healthy and vibrant quality of Chi, or energy. A good feng shui house will feel good, look good, and attract all the good to you. However, with all the growing popularity of feng shui, the confusion surrounding various feng shui applications seems to be steadily growing, too. You know that the Bagua, or the feng shui energy map of your house, is the foundation for your feng shui work. You also know that if your house is full of clutter - no matter if it's hidden or in plain view - you have to take care of your clutter first.

Applying feng shui in a cluttered house does not make much sense, as clutter is draining your personal energy, as well as blocking the flow of Chi, or universal energy. Ok, enough about clutter. But did I mention you have to clear out your clutter first? I think I did.

So, just when you cleared your clutter (did you really?) and are finally decorating your house with the feng shui Bagua energies in mind, another big confusion steps in - the yearly feng shui updates.

What Are the Annual Feng Shui Updates and Why Do They Matter?

The yearly feng shui updates are also known as the yearly movement of feng shui stars. In feng shui, there is a school - called the flying stars school - that calculates the movement of various energies, called stars. You can calculate the movement of energies by year, month, day and even by the hour. Kind of like astrology, but dealing with the feng shui energies of your house. The confusion usually arises when according to the yearly update you have to introduce a feng shui element that is generally not recommended in a specific Bagua area.

How Do You Apply the Annual Feng Shui Updates?

First, it is always helpful to understand the reason behind any yearly feng shui cure you are about to apply. Second, always choose cures, or decor elements, that work well in your house. Rushing to buy Chinese cures on-line because they are supposed to protect you from a potential catastrophe is just not intelligent. Unless, of course, you know exactly what you are doing and the specific traditional cure - be it a Pi Yao or a Rhinoceros - is what you truly do not mind seeing all year round in your house.

Usually, the recommended yearly feng shui cures are based on the feng shui element, as well as the essence (love, wealth, etc) of the visiting star. When a star is beneficial, you want to support its feng shui element, and when a star is troublesome, you want to weaken its element.

Let's make it easy by looking at two examples.

Beneficial Annual Feng Shui Star

The star #4 - so-called star of Romance and Education - is a beneficial star of Wood element. When this star visits any Bagua area, you want to support its element by bringing a Water element decor cure because Water feeds the Wood in the five elements productive cycle.

For example, in 2009 the star # 4 was located in the South area, this is why colors blue and black (Water element colors) were recommended. It was also recommended to limit a strong Fire element, as you do not want to burn the lucky star (Fire burns the Wood in the destructive cycle of feng shui elements.)

So, if you had a coral red or rich orange feature wall, you could bring beautiful aqua blue accessories and actually create a stunning, Martha Stewart-like color combination for the South bagua area. Alternatively, you could have had a mirror there in 2009, or artwork with clear water.

Challenging Annual Feng Shui Star

The 5 yellow star is a challenging star of Earth feng shui element. In 2009 this star was visiting the North area of your Bagua. As this is a potentially troublesome star, you had to focus on weakening it, so your cures were Metal element cures, as Metal weakens Earth in the destructive cycle of the five feng shui elements.

How was this done?

You brought the desired Metal element in the North in 2009 with many round metal frames, round being the shape of the feng shui metal element. A beautiful sculpture made from numerous metal rings worked, too. Or maybe the wallpaper you had on the feature wall in the North had a stunning movement of various size circles, all in silver and white colors (Metal element colors.) You get the idea.

In conclusion, let me illustrate the yearly feng shui movement of energies (stars) with another example. Stories always make it easier to comprehend complex information, do they not?

Let's imagine that your house has 9 rooms, each room representing a specific area of the Bagua. You like to use the rooms in a certain way (i.e. have specific elements in specific areas.)

However:

Every year you know you have several troublesome aunts (i.e. challenging annual stars) visiting and staying with you for a while. These aunts can potentially create a lot of trouble. They do let you know in advance when they are coming, but there is no way to avoid their visit. They also let you know in advance which rooms they want to stay in when coming to visit. So, how do you keep everybody sane when they are here? You decide to do your best in keeping your aunts' temper under control by adjusting their environment accordingly.

You will also have several wonderful aunts (i.e. auspicious annual stars) coming to stay with you this year, and you can't wait for them to come! These aunts also change their room preferences (specific Bagua area) every year, so you do your best to make them feel welcomed by slightly redecorating (i.e. annual feng shui adjustments) the rooms. You want to benefit the most from their stay because when treated well, these aunts always shower you with awesome gifts!

Understanding the yearly feng shui updates allows you to make subtle changes to avoid potential conflicts, as well as use the good energy for maximum benefits. Focus on the positive, take care of the negative, and do not forget to enjoy the process!